


This Cruel Kindness

by wrennette



Series: Possible Futures [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Mental Illness, Violence, archiving old words, foresight, non-consensual medical treatment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:05:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4793789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrennette/pseuds/wrennette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin strips Morgana of her ability to See, thinking of her best interests. She goes insane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Cruel Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving from LJ. Originally posted 2009.
> 
> Disclaimer: Merlin is the property of the BBC, characters just borrowed for entertainment purposes. Author makes no profit.

Not long after Gaius passes, quiet in his sleep, Morgana comes for more sleeping potion. Merlin makes it to Gaius' specifications without complaint, but his mind is turning the problem over like a broken box, contemplating how best to rejoin the fractured seams. The next time she comes back, Merlin tells her he can give her a slightly different potion, that might let her sleep a bit better, and that she only has to take once to be cured forever. She gives him a long, even look, silently measuring, then nods once. 

Three days later, Morgana bursts into Merlin's quarters, and she looks like she has not slept at all in that time.

"What have you done!?" she thunders, her eyes manic and wild. Merlin steps back unconsciously, his eyes leeching gold. She sneers, and her hand sweeps through the air between them as if to slap him, and despite that he leans back out of the way, pain cracks across his face. Merlin turns back to her in horror, his hand rising to press incredulous fingers against his already swelling cheek. "How dare you," she hisses, low and dark, and she turns, and is gone.

Three months later, the Druids break their tentative truce, and Morgana is standing in the front lines when their armies meet on the field of battle. Even from across the killing grounds, Merlin can see that her sea-green eyes have gone milky white and red ringed with blindness. Thick mucus wells along the openings, dried blood tears streaking down her cheeks, and when the armies advance towards each other, the boy Mordred is at her side, her pale hand on his bony shoulder.

Neither Mordred nor Morgana can be touched, and when Morgana extends her free hand towards Arthur's army, Merlin half expects the crackling lightning that lances from her fingertips. Mordred extends his hand as well, mirroring her action, and the result is the same. Merlin is hard pressed to repulse the attack, and he is left feeling soiled after his magic has been touched by theirs. A bright bloom of blood drips down Morgana's upper lip, and she sneers coldly at them, the armies advancing still.

"I warned you," Morgana tells Merlin in his dreams that night, and he wakes with her mad laughter ringing in his ears.


End file.
